Meet GigSky, the Company Behind the iPad’s Global-Roaming Abilities

It gets just the briefest of mentions
on Apple’s website, but a small Palo Alto startup represents the secret
sauce that allows the most recent iPad models to roam seamlessly in
more than 90 countries.GigSky, which
also offers its services to iOS and Android devices via an app, has
roaming deals that allow customers to use their iPads all over the world
without needing to rely on Wi-Fi or to purchase service in each country
they visit.
While cheaper than what you would pay AT&T or Verizon for traveling abroad, GigSky’s prices
are still higher than popping in a local SIM card. In Japan, for
example, 500 megabytes of data costs $50, while in England you can get
five gigabytes of data for that price.

GigSky In addition to powering global travel options on the iPad, GigSky sells its own SIM card for use in other devices.

“No matter what we do, it’s actually going to cost more than local,” CEO Ravi Rishy-Maharaj told Re/code. GigSky has to strike deals, handle billing and customer support, and run its own data centers.
That said, rival FreedomPop is offering a portable hotspot that works in a bunch of countries for rates generally lower than those offered by GigSky.
Rishy-Maharaj won’t say just how many customers his 65-person company
has, but he acknowledges that far more people are traveling overseas
with their iPad than are actually signing up for any sort of
international service.
While GigSky estimates there are 28 million cellular-equipped iPads
out there capable of accessing its service, only a fraction have yet
done so (iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3 and 4 are supported). The
company estimates that about 700,000 of those iPads are traveling
internationally in any given month, but only about 100,000 are actually
on some sort of roaming data plan.
“Hopefully, embedded Apple SIM will change all of this, especially
since international Wi-Fi calling is now enabled on the iPad,”
Rishy-Maharaj said.
In addition to the new calling feature, Apple has made Apple SIM a more permanent presence on the iPad, embedding it into the tablet rather than making it merely one option to go into the removable slot.
Apple is GigSky’s most high-profile partner, but Rishy-Maharaj says more deals are in the works.
While there are plenty of other “travel SIM” companies, GigSky was
among the earliest to recognize that data, not voice service, would
become the most precious resource when traveling abroad.